


I love you (not!)

by eipic



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Accidental Kissing, Alternate Universe - College/University, Asexual Character, Awkward Crush, Awkwardness, Childhood Friends, Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups Being an Idiot, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Home for Christmas, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Sorry, Kid Lee Chan | Dino, M/M, chan is jeonghan's baby bro, i dont know what im doing, i really love jicheol???, im really useless lmao, jicheol endgame, rich jeonghan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-07 07:44:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17361863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eipic/pseuds/eipic
Summary: Seungcheol happily agreed to be Jeonghan's fake boyfriend.he didn't agree to falling for the boy next door.





	1. Chapter 1

jeonghan had that look in his eye again, the _'i'm a perfect angel, please help me'_ look that made seungcheol willing to turn his spleen inside out for him if he so much as asked him. jisoo was giving seungcheol the _'don't be fooled by him, he's trying to wrap you round his pinky'_ look and seungcheol was just left feeling conflicted as he dumped his textbooks on the table and picked up the fullest to-go coffee cup on the table - assuming it was his own - and downed half the scolding liquid in one go and winced before taking his seat, looking as exhausted as the other two felt.

"you love me right, cheol?" jeonghan singsonged, making puppy eyes at his best friend. seungcheol could already feel a headache coming on as he indulged himself in jeonghan's antics much to jisoo's silent dismay as he mimed cutting his throat and dying in his seat, his gut spilling on to his school texts. "yeah, i do love you, jeonghan," he raised a sceptical eyebrow and watched as the ever-theatrical jeonghan threw himself across the table and grabbed a hold of seungcheol's bicep in a vice-like grip. out the corner of his eye seungcheol could see the music major roll his eyes and sneakily slip a few spoons of salt into jeonghan's coffee. seungcheol ignored it and turned back to jeonghan who was giving him big pleading his eyes.

suddenly, jeonghan launched into an explanation, his hands flying about taking seungcheol's arm's with him and nearly smacking jisoo in the head as he tried his best to study and pretend he didn't know who they both were. those pleading puppy eyes were back, filling with fake tears as jeonghan pouted, wringing seungcheol's arm up and down, "jisoo is going home for the break which means you _have_ to help me." jeonghan's eyes turned dark and his words became final, telling seungcheol he could argue with him but he probably wouldn't be going back to his dorm room with both his balls intact. seungcheol gave jeonghan a sheepish smile and thought over the offer.

to be completely honest, seungcheol was going to spend the break locked away in his bedroom back at his dorm with a massive bowl of popcorn and binge netflix because his parents were away in japan for a much needed holiday away from korea which left him on his own for two weeks while everyone else visited their families. seungcheol smirked, finally deciding on what he was going to do but he wanted to make jeonghan wait since he was being a little whiny bitch about his parents nagging about his relationships - or lack thereof. "ok, jeonghan," he grinned leaning back on his chair, "i'll be your fake boyfriend. when do we leave?"

"tomorrow."

jisoo just picked his coffee cup up as he knew instinctively what would happen next. seungcheol fell off his chair, smacked his elbow on the table and spilled coffee on himself, "you waited for until the _day before_ to tell me?" he demanded from the floor, a little bit more than pissed at jeonghan who was laughing at him.

* * *

seungcheol had never met jeonghan's parents before, nor had he ever seen his house before but he had been friends with jeonghan since he was able to tell the difference between 'mom' and 'dad'. so, most of the train journey was spent with jeonghan playing Farmville on his phone while seungcheol was having an internal monologue and mental break down about what jeonghan's parent would be like. all seungcheol knew was they liked formal parties because jeonghan had told him while he was packing and that they had a guilty pleasure in watching the sappiest romantic dramas they could find and for them to even consider seungcheol was his boyfriend they would need some sort of drama-esque falling in love story that was a bit more than 'we were childhood friends and suddenly i realized i was in love'.

overall, the train journey had been hell for seungcheol but the sight of jeonghan's home put his blood pressure through the roof as he starred at the four-story building in amazement. he didn't think anyone could afford such a large house but it seemed jeonghan's family managed very well.

"you live in _that_?" seungcheol could feel himself going faint as he recreated on of jeonghan's more dramatic moments, jeonghan batted seungcheol's reaction away as the size of his home was something normal and every day and that seungcheol was just overreacting to something he should be used to. "c'mon seungcheol, i can see my mom freezing from here." and as if on queue a petite woman wearing a shawl standing at the end of the never-ending drive waving at them with the biggest smile on her face in the history of smiles. 

jeonghan looked just like his mother, however, he did have the soft shape of his father's eyes. but that was where the similarities ended. before seungcheol could even get a word out the mother and father of his life long friend were squeezing him into bone-crushing hugs, forcing the air out the lungs and making him realize why jeonghan wasn't one for hugs. seungcheol eventually managed to scramble away and bow before his fake in-laws, "it's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Yoon," seungcheol could be awkward and away with the fairies a lot but he wasn't raised to be rude. jeonghan's mother laughed, her smile hidden behind her small hand as her shoulders moved up and down, "Oh hush, seungcheol, just call us mom and dad - you might as well be family."

there was a soft thud of fluffy socks on polished wooden floors as a tiny boy flew down the stairs at a million miles an hour without coming to a stop until he had crashed into jeonghan's chest to grin up at him with three missing teeth. "look!" he grinned pointing at the gaps in his teeth as he beamed at jeonghan, "i lost another one!" he looked so excited to show jeonghan and seungcheol coo at how jeonghan reacted, only to get elbowed in the ribs which winded him momentarily.

"seungcheol, this is my little brother, the wanna be dinosaur." jeonghan grinned at his little brother before hoisting him up onto his shoulders - much to both parents disapproval because they didn't want to get the ceiling paint scratched. "this is my special friend, seungcheol, say hi chan," jeonghan instructed, ducking to miss a light fixture on the way up the stairs, must to chan's approval as he laughed and giggled at the sudden feeling of being almost dropped off jeonghan's shoulders, "hi chan," chan waved at seungcheol to his own amusement as jeonghan deposited the 7-year-old in his bedroom on the third story of the house.

chan's smile was dropping a bit now, he looked less like a happy child and more of a confused one who didn't know his multiplication tables, "he's not really your special friend, is he?" both seungcheol and jeonghan shared a guilty expression as jeonghan dropped to his knees, explanation time had begun, "what makes you say that?" chan shrugged and sucked on his lip for a second, "you don't look at each other like mom and dad do. he looks bored." he accused, pointing a judgemental finger straight at seungcheol with an evil little grin. "ok , channie, my little baby, how does 10 sound and you don't breathe a word of this to mom and dad?" chan nodded excitedly and snatched the note off jeonghan before going into his room to do some arts and crafts or something along those lines, 7-year-olds like that kind of stuff.

jeonghan's room was on the third floor as well, but it was a little bit bigger than chan's room seungcheol noted. there were a computer desk and a little bedside table, not to forget his king size bed, otherwise, jeonghan's room was bare. there were two photos next to his bed too, a picture of chan, seungcheol assumed it was the day he was born, and an old picture from a summer camp he, jeonghan and another friend had gone to many summers ago.

out the corner of his eye, jeonghan caught the longing stare of seungcheol and decide to place the photo face down on the desk, the picture didn't hold the same memories with seungcheol as it did jeonghan.

* * *

most of the afternoon the pair spent cooped up in jeonghan's bedroom, scrolling through various social media pages and reading out funny comments or posts they found before jeonghan's phone began buzzing in his hand and screaming constantly before he finally switched off his alarm. "put some fancy-ish clothes on," jeonghan muttered, standing up from laying on his bed stretching, all the muscles in his back and arms clicking back into place as he did so, "mom said we're having guests over for dinner.

so seungcheol complied, together they walked down the stairs smartly dressed to jeonghan's taste to greet jeonghan's parents were standing in the entryway wearing smart clothes themselves and matching smiling faces as they waited patiently for someone, "evening boys," Mr. Yoon smiled at the pair descending the stairs and gestured in the direction of another room, "chan is setting up the dining room, could you give him a hand please?" normally seungcheol expected complaining to trundle out of jeonghan's mouth but instead he just grabbed seungcheol's hand and dragged him off into the dining to room to help his struggling baby brother.

although he argued and was convinced he was grown up enough to lay the table by himself, chan eventually let the two university students help him lay the table. the table was laid for 7, an odd number but from the layout, it seemed that jeonghan and seungcheol had been paired up on one side of the table with the two guests, jeonghan's parents were seat the opposite side of the table and chan had the seat of head of the table on his own. jeonghan sniggered at the seat arrangement and fell into his chair, seungcheol taking the time to sit on his chair - not collapse - "he normally has to sit next to me but he feels like a little king when he's head of the table." jeonghan smirked while seungcheol smiled at chan who was coloring in a book with very intense concentration, the tip of his tongue just jutting out as he worked very hard to make sure Mickey mouse had all the right colors. seungcheol found in endearing.

eventually, jeonghan offered seungcheol a drink. a small glass of red wine to match his wine red socks jeonghan had chucked at him when he was changing. seungcheol sniffed the drink and frowned at it, he wasn't a big wine drinker. he was the sort of guy that drank beer until he gave himself liver poisoning and hid in his bedroom for three days consecutively to avoid the dangers of school and lectures who would lecture him on his health.

"the guests are here," Mrs. Yoon sang, informing seungcheol on where jeonghan got his vocal skills from - and it wasn't his mother. seungcheol turned as jeonghan did away from the kitchen counter to the dining table where everyone else was.

there was wine and glass all over the kitchen floor and seungcheol had a hurt look in his eyes as he realized who it was. and he couldn't believe that he hadn't changed in all the years he had been missing him, only now there was someone else with him.

jihoon just looked unimpressed and sat down. then seungcheol's heart shattered like the wine glass he had dropped.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

it was summer time again and school was out, meaning seungcheol and jeonghan were out in force to jeopardise the local neighbourhood. only, seungcheol was on his own carrying a bunch of wilting coneflowers - there were so few they couldn't even be considered a bouquet. the flowers looked droopy and disappointing, much like the girl who gave them to him must've felt when he tried to reject her confession as nicely as a possible.  _i like someone else_ he had tried to say but she just stood there and accused him of being shallow and small minded but she wouldn't listen, she simply shoved the flowers in his arms and ran away trying her best to hide her tear.

they were 15, she would get over it soon enough.

the flowers left a trail of petals as seungcheol descended the tiny grass overhang to reach the banks of the river where he spent most of his days without jeonghan so he could think without hearing jeonghan think too hard. seungcheol crouched on a rock at the edge of the river and frowned at the flowing water drowning out the sound of the woodland clustered on the opposite of the river, he still couldn't make out his reflection.

jeonghan had been shipped off to another summer camp seungcheol couldn't afford to attend this year so he was on his own, stranded with nothing to do. he just sighed and watched the water run by, hoping the water would distract him from the loneliness of no friends to hang out with and two parents tangled up in their jobs he was just something stuck in the background. the summer would be over soon and he could spend his classes listening to jeonghan complain about his summer and flick bits of paper at junhwi and minggyu to pass the time.

"seungcheol?" a tiny voice called out from behind, distracting seungcheol from his brooding at the riverside, jihoon crept up to where seungcheol was and as usual the younger looked bored and completely unbothered by the heat in his long sleeve t-shirt and jeans, and a seemingly random winter woollen hat to top off his mismatched outfit. he looked like some sort of Christmas sugar plum fairy from his perch on the overhang.

seungcheol sucked on his gums and looked up at jihoon who was flicking pieces of grass off his jeans, dull as always. "what you got there?" jihoon asked, gesturing to the dying clump of flowers seungcheol had been abandoned with, "what these?" he asked dumbly, waving the flowers around slightly. jihoon gave him a look almost to say shut up but seungcheol ignored it. "another gift from someone i don't like back." he admitted, looking away suddenly.

maybe it was the soft way jihoon's eyes curved to smile his sympathies, or maybe it was the quiet company he gave seungcheol, or maybe it was just the way jihoon was caring without having to be verbal with his emotions. either way, something was making seungcheol's heart rate speed up a little more than normal. he felt guilty looking at his friend the way so many girls felt the need to look at him.

he felt like a hypocrite.

maybe that's why seungcheol and jihoon stopped talking. maybe seungcheol pushed him too far away to not hurt himself that he broke the one thing he thought was unbreakable. the friendship he had with jihoon.

they were 15, he thought his heart would get over it.

but the heart doesn't care about time and seeing jihoon again was doing something and he was falling back down the rabbit hole he had barely been able to crawl out of.

jihoon smiled at seungcheol with his cat-like features, "what's wrong? is there something on my face?" he was nearly 15, how was he to know seungcheol was in love. seungcheol shook his head.

_i think i like you jihoon_


	3. Chapter 3

dinner was an awkward affair.

all seungcheol remembered was eating a beautiful meal and getting so embarrassingly wine drunk that jeonghan had to escort him to bed early which was where seungcheol found himself now, lying on the floor in his underwear unsure of his own existence while jeonghan whined elaborately about how he had never been more embarrassed in his life and how seungcheol was an asshole and how he needed to _grow the fuck up already_.

but, seungcheol had heard it all a thousand times before from jeonghan so he just moved on with his life, it wasn't without struggle but he managed. getting past his best friend to get to bathroom posed a struggle because he was still ranting about the night before but seungcheol made it in just about one piece, minus his dignity. jeonghan had made a very big fuss about how _wine drunk seungcheol_ had spilt red wine down his nice new shirt and jeonghan had been there to confiscated the bottle of red wine he was drinking out of and later on had to relieve seungcheol of his shirt and the dress pants he had been wearing.

even while in the bathroom seungcheol had to listen to jeonghan who had taken it upon himself to follow seungcheol into the tiny bathroom he and chan shared so as to continue ranting at the older, explaining why he was so disappointed and why he needed to rethink his actions. of course, jeonghan's continual whining was doing nothing for seungcheol's worsening headache other than making him want to drown jeonghan in the basin he was trying to fill with water to wash his face.

"anyways," jeonghan was about three inches from seungcheol's face, blocking his view of the mirror, "what was that whole thing with dropping the glass of wine?" clearly jeonghan had the memory of a sieve because seungcheol knew the event (ahem, mistake) would haunt him until the end of time because he ruined his own life so effortlessly by being so stupid.

* * *

**happy 17th birthday seungshitbag**

the banner was taped haphazardously across the door to seungcheol's bedroom, no doubt it was the combined brainpower of minggyu and jeonghan who had made the banner but at least it made seungcheol smile after the worst day on earth. today had gone tits up for seungcheol after forgetting his math homework, the bathroom at school had flooded and some moron had spilt paint on his gym kit so the banner brought a much-needed smile to seungcheol's face.

inside the bedroom crouched seungcheol's tiny friend circle who had been planning this birthday celebration for 3 hours when they finally remembered it was his birthday. mingyu was tucked behind the door, jeonghan was pressed with his back to seungcheol's tiny bedframe and jihoon was sat on seungcheol's desk chair waiting patiently for seungcheol. as soon as the light flicked on, all three jumped out and shouted "happy birthday!" while seungcheol pretended to be surprised.

it was the surprise seungcheol needed (even if it was a shit surprise), even jihoon was sporting a smile as the group sang and danced about the tiny bedroom, bumping into each other and spilling drinks on the floor. it was the best birthday celebration seungcheol could have asked for - party hats included.

the end of the evening was drawing near, it was the time of day when the sun kissed the horizon and mingyu was getting ready to leave. jeonghan was staying the night at seungcheol's because he didn't want his best friend lonely on his birthday, especially with his parents out of town on business. that left jihoon who didn't seem to know where to place himself - stay a few hours more or get a lift off mingyu's dad? seungcheol knew what his answer would have been to the dilemma ("jihoon, stay the night - you can call your parents off the house phone.") but it wasn't seungcheol's place to make decisions for him.

jihoon took a second glance at the clock and readjusted his party hat, "I'm gonna stay for another hour." he said with finality in his tone. everyone just accepted jihoon was staying and carried on with what they were doing beforehand (mingyu was packing his school bag to leave, seungcheol was cleaning up the mess that had been made and jeonghan, the mastermind behind it all, was nowhere to be found.)

after mingyu had left, jeonghan reappeared with a bottle of vodka and a few glass tumbler. seungcheol's heart fell out his ass at the sight of jeonghan swinging the bottle gently with a lopsided grin. "now that the snitch has left, let the real party begin!" he yelled directly into jihoon's ear - jeonghan was already intoxicated.

as the responsible member of the group, seungcheol refused to drink the vodka jeonghan and jihoon were passing between themselves without a care in the world. it took a little bit of coaxing but jeonghan finally broke seungcheol's golden boy attitude and he was drinking as heavily as the other two with no cares in the world because tomorrow was Saturday and all seungcheol really had had plans was a few hours to himself with his right hand as a birthday present to himself.

in less than an hour, the trio was smashed off their faces and talking gibberish. jihoon had cracked open his shell and was talking a mile a minute, mostly shit talking people he didn't like but seungcheol was both too intoxicated and too smitten to care that every other word out of the youngest's mouth was something along the lines of fuck, shit, piss or bastard. jeonghan turned green suddenly and all the colour drained from his face as he made a very clumsy, drunken dash for the bathroom down the hall to empty the contents of his system.

with jeonghan gone, seungcheol was left alone with jihoon. left alone with a teen he had been falling in love with since he was 15. the teen he couldn't be in the same room with on his own because he was so afraid of his own emotions taking control. only now, seungcheol couldn't control his emotions, his brain was numb from the vodka and his heart was taking over. 

* * *

the memory from there is too painful for seungcheol's sober self so he blocks it, ignores it and pretends he didn't do what he did but sometimes when he's drunk, he relives the moments, the feeling of kissing jihoon in his bedroom, the moon just rising in the sky and it's light shining through his window. when he kissed jihoon he lost control, he made a mistake, he ruined a friendship because jihoon was kissing him back and seungcheol didn't know what to do.

"jeonghan could you get out my face? I'm trying to wash my face," he groaned in half asleep as jeonghan continued to stare at him accusingly, "I'll pay for the glass just let me wake up." he grumbled, splashing water at jeonghan - who shrieked accordingly - to get him out the bathroom so he could freshen up, sober up and altogether not give up.


End file.
